Is There Still Space for Big Ideas?
The Big Idea, The Long Idea, The Creative Platform, The Unicorn Blueprint, The Infinite Idea Cannon, The Foundational Framework of Fantasmic Futures, The Glory Whole; the tagline, logline or slogan. Whatever form it takes, whatever name you give it, there needs to be more than space for it, there must be room for it to stretch its legs so it can kick out and colonize every corner with its brilliance. The reason? The three C's: Consistency, Consistency & Consistency.
Consistency is the key to people actually remembering what your brand stands for and why it is relevant to them. Kit Kat reminds us to have a break. Snickers satisfy those who aren't feeling themselves. Specsavers remind us where we need to go.
In today's social-first world, consistency is essential because every idea has the possibility to show up everywhere. A billboard in Timbuktu, if good enough, can be shared and seen in Tipperary. Good ideas know no boundaries and your brand needs to stay in sync, no matter who's playing in the band.
In our fragmented media landscape eyeballs ping-pong from 'bad' screens to 'good' screens, from retina embedded goggles to billboards all while being bombarded by 6,000+ brand messages a day. The brands that win are those who tell a consistent story across every platform. Snickers flexed its big idea from the SuperBowl to twitter and brought it to life on the wrapper itself, but its biggest flex was letting the idea play out in the hands of the consumer. The big idea is neat, but the sign of a gargantuan idea is when people take your brand idea and reinterpret it to fit their lives, in this case, in the form of meme madness.
The Big (Consistent) Idea is the branding equivalent of a musical earworm. Get it stuck in people’s heads so that every time they encounter your brand, it’s like hearing a beloved remix of a smash hit, not some forgotten B-side no one asked for. The brands with the hits keep playing the hits. You know what you’re getting, and you love them for it.
The big idea is an organizing principle that allows a brand to show up in culture consistently, while flexing enough to accommodate cultural and regional nuances. Resist the temptation to experiment with the avant-garde album. Stick to the bangers. Stick to the Big Idea.